30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

Best PDA bar none!, July 1, 2004

Reviewer:   Mary Jo Sminkey (Herndon, VA United States) - See all my reviews

I'm a long time Palm (and Pocket PC) user and have never really been 100% happy with any device I've gotten. Some came close...my wonderful Sony Clie 710C was awesome in its day. I've enjoyed the Sony Clie line for its superb color screens and cutting-edge features. But they are expensive and more recently, seemed to be falling behind. I was darn tired of having to upgrade the RAM in order to have something useable so when I heard about the Tapwave Zodiac 2 which offered an unbelievable 128 Meg of RAM I was immediately interested. After checking the specs I determined to be one of the first to get one of these devices. Gaming is secondary to it being a good Palm device, but definitely a HUGE plus for me.

My first reaction when I got it was how awesome the screen was! It definitely rivaled any other Palm device out there, and people always comment on it when I show them. The huge amount of RAM is just a joy to have. You can even load MP3s on it, although certainly using a good size SD card works even better. Don't miss the double card slots! Another feature you won't find on any other Palm device.

Video playback is great using MMPlayer (ditch the crappy Kinoma it comes with) and MP3 music is quite excellent. Battery life is excellent compared to other Palm color devices, and landscape and portrait options make things like reading ebooks and viewing photos even better. Bluetooth works great, I have no trouble downloading email over my cellphone.

So, how is it as a gaming device? Compared to other Palm devices, this device blows them out of the water! The number of available games specifically for the Zodiac is still fairly small (although there are some excellent games out there now) but having access to the full library of Palm games means I have more games loaded on it then I ever will have time to play. The included game, Stunt Car Extreme, is excellent and shows great potential for this device.

Overall, as a gaming device alone, I probably would not recommend the Zodiac, simply because there are better, cheaper options out there. But if you need or want a PDA that does multimedia and gaming, you won't find a better choice, and at a very reasonable price.

February 2005 Followup - Well, I've had this Zodiac for sometime now and it's still going strong. I've never had any analog button issues like some of the first models (like I have) commonly had, and with a screen protector, it still looks pretty good. I have the new WiFi card which makes it great for quick email checks and browsing the web. I do also use the bluetooth with my cell phone for email when Wifi is not available, so pretty much can do email anywhere. Still haven't managed to fill up the memory. I do sometimes have problems with it getting locked up and draining power, seems to be some issues with Preferences, and changing the auto-off will usually clear the issue for a time. Also the shoulder buttons are getting a bit loose. A bit of a design flaw, IMO, due to the flimsy plastic they are made with. Overall though, I still love my Zodiac and have kept it longer than most PDAs I've had.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Cool System -- Buyer Beware, July 28, 2005

Reviewer:   J. Straub (Cleveland Heights, OH United States) - See all my reviews

The Tapwave Zodiac is one of the most versatile handhelds that runs the Palm OS. It features a large, easy-to-see screen, two SD slots and has significant onboard RAM (depending on which model you purchase). The system makes a good gaming platform and a great organizer.

The big problem, though, is that as of July 25th, Tapwave has announced that they will no longer be selling or supporting the Zodiac (check out their website for details). As of July 28th, it said that they will not be supporting them (but does offer links to some online user forums, etc.); the message seems to suggest that Tapwave may be continuing other lines, but not the Zodiac (currently the do not have any other publicly announced lines), so they may later relent on their support stance.


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